Let's take a break from all the writing about pregnancy to write about the new house, because I'm in love with this place, even though everything is still messy and complicated and there is a job list of things we want to do that I daren't even try to write down, because I might run out of ink...
Way back when we first came to see the house, one of the things we loved about it was the land and one of the things I loved about it was that there were chickens and there was a duck. I'm not sure if this has only happened since I turned thirty or so, but I LOVE ducks. Despite the fact I was bitten by a duck I was feeding in the park when I was little, I still LOVE them, and the idea of getting to keep a duck was just too exciting.
On that first visit, the duck was in part of the enclosure where we couldn't see her, and I did the silly thing of getting excited like she was going to be the pure white runner duck I have dreamt of that I really want to call... Graham. I don't know why.
I know that the "logical" thing is to go with Donald Duck, but Trump makes me not want to do that, and I know that if I have an egg laying duck, it's a female duck, and so it would make more sense to have Daisy the duck, or Jemima Puddleduck, or plenty of other names that make more sense, but I will not be persuaded! I desperately want a little white runner duck and I want to call her Graham...
Other than this mad little dream about wanting this duck, there are other reasons I want a duck, or rather, a number of ducks. One of the great things about the land that we have, and one of the things I want to do with it, is use it for growing things like strawberries, tomatoes, maybe chilli but probably not since I don't eat them... but given that I love the nature of the garden, given my love of it's wildness and the character that gives it, and given the proximity to the river, the last thing I want to do is be covering it in chemical pesticides to keep slugs off my strawberries and aphids off my tomato plants.
Whilst I know that ducks don't eat aphids - far too small and faffy - they do eat slugs and other crop destroying bugs. They are little foragers, so they waddle about looking adorable, keeping the bugs and slugs at bay and as they're waddling around doing their thing (and yes, chickens do this too, but they're not anything like as cute doing it) they also do their business which is brilliant for the soil.
Essentially one thing I would love to do is create an enclosure over my strawberry plants that I can let the ducks into, let them do their foraging periodically, but making sure they're not taking all of my strawberries, and then let them back into their run and their predator proof house at night, and use it as that fabulous recycling system.
As things stand, I have a composter, and I feel like I'm forever fighting with it (it's only been a few weeks since we moved in, but I do sometimes love a flair for the dramatic) because we were inundated by too many apples and I can't make a composter big enough or to go fast enough to try and get on top of the amount of them that there are, particularly along the path down to the river that means I can't go walking down there at the moment for fear of slipping. (It's not just an irrational fear, I tried it on bonfire night and nearly ended up in a heap on my bottom.) As we have the number of apple trees that we do, the birds would be amazing at helping keep on top of this as well, even if they do need a bit of pampering when it comes to apples with the way they need them chopping down, but I also have another plan for the apples for this year and I'm hoping it's not too long before I can put that into motion.
